Life
by Ash Colored Wings
Summary: I was born normal. At eleven I was taken to become a freak in a place called the School. 3 years later I was transferred Schools. Within my first days at my new School, I got free, met freaks like myself, and helped explode the School. Ah, life. HIATUS
1. Chapter 1

I woke up into a cold, black room. I couldn't see anything, including my hand where it was on my lap. The only thought I had was 'Am I still asleep?' because I don't remember turning off my light when I'd been doing homework last night. Whether I liked it or not, I had a habit of falling asleep at my desk.

The sheet and blanket on the springy bed felt scratchy and plastic against my skin, and I knew I was definitely awake, and definitely not at home.

I tried to sit up, but something was holding me by my throat.

I tried to scream, but the thing began to tighten around my throat, blocking my airway. In all the blackness around me, black dots began to dance in my vision, and I somehow saw them despite how dark it was.

I struggled but it was too strong. I tried to breath, but I couldn't.

My head began to spin, and I felt nauseous. Tears began to leak up in my eyes, as I realized this was probably my last living moment.

Then everything stopped.

_3 Years Later_

I licked my lips, bouncing on the balls of my feet.

The strange, feline-like creatures growled at me, the creatures I had came to know as the Precedes, which meant they came before death. It was backwards for me, thankfully, and they could barely lay a finger on me.

5 stared me down, all 6 of us waiting for the 'Go ahead' sign. The only thing that kept them from attacking me immediately was the fact that they would be killed if they made a move at me before the doctors said they could.

The Precedes could be replaced with the click of a button, and they knew it, so none pushed their luck at it.

The room was currently black, as black as the first day I was brought here, but I could see fine. It was just one of the few, sick things the scientists had done to me. It was on my list of things I called 'Enhanced Senses'.

My thoughts were caught off track as the blinding white lights turned off. It dazed me for a second, but I ignored it and dodged to the side on instinct.

I heard a dull 'thud' as the Precede that'd attacked me did a face plant.

My eyes adjusted to the lights, just in time for me to see another Precede pounce at me. I dodged again, getting annoyed. It landed on its stomach, before it jumped back up.

I grabbed the struggling Precede that had tried to tackle me, and wrenched his neck to the left. It gave snap, than the Precede fell limp.

A different Precede tried to kick me in the head, so I grabbed his foot. I pulled and he fell in what I could guess to be a very uncomfortable split. I grabbed his neck and wrenched. Hey, it's a signature move.

I straightened up just in time to feel a fist connect to my jaw. I staggered, to see 1 of the 3 remaining Precedes standing in front of me.

I snarled and punched her in the gut. I then kicked her in the face; she fell to the ground in a dead faint. I decided to finish her of later.

The 2 standing Precedes charged at me, probably wanting to get the final blow. As if they could land a blow on me. But then again, they probably could. It's never a good trait to get too cocky.

I punched the one in front in the face, and I heard a satisfying crack. I swept the others legs under him with my leg, and I rapped my right arm around his neck while the other was busy trying to staunch the flow of blood from her nose.

I kept on squeezing until he fell limp, his pulse faltering then stopping altogether.

I redid the move with the other one, until I was the last one standing, 5 Precedes bodies lying around. I piled them up, after killing the one I'd knocked unconscious, and waited for the lights to turn back off.

I only had to wait a few seconds, because the lights all turned off again. They were off for a minute, and I saw a few other Precedes come in to take the other bodies to the morgue where they would be sent back to the families after being revived.

One sneered at me, while the others desperately tried not too. I could see the way the muscles in their jaws were twitching.

When they were all out, a gas filled the room. It was a strange shade of grey, and it clouded the room. I fell to the ground, my muscles failing beneath me. I tried standing back up. But I couldn't. I couldn't do anything. Not breathe, not blink.

The last thing I remember were the lights turning back on.

I sat up to look around. Or, I tried to sit up. But I couldn't, something was strapping me down.

It was like it was 3 years ago, but it was choking me. Plus, I could see.

"I see you've woken." A voice on the almost unapparent speakers said, "We will be transporting you to a different School in Death Valley, California to be tested with others of your abilities. You may die, but do not fret, we will revive you." He said.

My eyes widened. I was moving _School's_?

When I realized the irony of the sentence I bit back a bark-like laugh. Normal kids could think the sentence and not have to think of mutants, evil scientists, experiments, medicine and hospitals.

But of course, I wasn't normal. I'd give a life (not mine) to be normal.

Well, to put it short, I was born in sunny Florida, about an hour north of Miami., right by Palm Beach. But my family wasn't exactly the richest around. They weren't even rich. We were quite poor, in fact.

One day, when I was 11, after coming back from a busy day at school, they broke the news to me. I was leaving to a special facility.

A facility that would give them a few thousands dollars if they handed me over. So they did. And now, I'm 14, a would-be freshman in High school, living in a _very special_ facility.

One where they mutate kids, kill survivors (ones who snuck out of the School), feed mutated kids to the hounds, train mutated kids to fight to the death, run experiments on mutated kids that weren't killed, and many horrific things you wouldn't want to know.

Very special, don't you think. Specially demented, at least.

In the middle of my thoughts, a doctor walked in. And guess what this one did? You and I are very familiar with it.

He grabbed a shot from his pocket, and pushed it in my arm. Right in the crook of the elbow.

I think you know what happens next.

I fell unconscious.


	2. Chapter 2

There were three things I noticed when I woke up. One, my head felt like I'd been hit with a jackhammer, two, I was in a dog crate, and three, there were other dog crates across from me with other kids in them. As I looked closer at the ones to my side, I found that these kids looked the same as the kids from my old School.

Some look perfectly normal, but the moment they move, look at your or talk you'll know something's off. Others don't have to do anything and you'll see. The green-scaled lizard boy who was at my old School was a perfect example of that, but I'd never actually seen him anywhere else then in the halls. Unlike this school, we were kept in about four by four rooms.

I sat up, one hand supporting my aching head, and leant against the back of the cage, observing the kids across from me. Two seemed perfectly normal, two sweet little kids with light blond hair that I'd swear were siblings, but the rest had obvious mutations.

When I looked closer at the little girl for any sign of disfiguration, her eyes locked with mine. I held her stare for a few seconds, but I couldn't see any thing wrong.

_I have wings._ A voice in my head said, sounding like a little girl.

"Was that you?" I mouthed to her, and she nodded, smiling, "Can you read my mind?" I mouthed again, and she nodded.

_My names Lynx, what about you?_ I thought, feeling a little dumb. Lynx was my real name, but I forgot my old one, and when I found out they were putting lynx blood in me I renamed myself.

_Angel, and the boy in the cage next to me is Gazzy_. The voice said, and I smiled slightly. I was about to ask how old she was when a doctor went to her cage, a clipboard in hand. Angel looked at the doctor with a wide smile, her eyes lit up, and the doctor, who I could see to be a young dirty blond haired girl winked.

I realized she must be escaping, and I looked both ways for anyone. No one. Once they'd gotten the other boy, Gazzy, Angel looked pointedly at my cage, and I knew she was probably speaking to her mentally. The girl looked exasperated, pointing to the way she came urgently and shaking her head.

Angel frowned but nodded, and they were off. My temper flared as I watched them jog down the hallway. Before they turned the corner, Angel glanced back at me, a determined look on her face.

_We'll get you out. Don't worry. _And then she was gone.

I wanted to tell her not to come back, as she'd get caught along with the other two, if she wasn't caught now, but I was selfish enough that I didn't.

I leaned against the back of the crate, watching two scientists and four robots with wings jog up to the crates where Angel and Gazzy had been. One scientist swore loudly while the other told the robots to find them, and the robots immediately left, while the scientists paced for a few minutes, guessing how they could have gotten out, as the locks all had codes and no one except the scientists knew them.

"Lets go look at surveillance." One said finally, and the other one nodded. They left, and I was left alone, once again.

I didn't have to wait long, because soon, one scientist with a metal gurney came up to my cage, a crazy glint in his eyes, another scientists following quickly.

He put a spray bottle to the cage, and I took a deep breath before he sprayed it.

"Can't hold your breath forever." He said, smiling widely. I narrowed my eyes at him, keeping my mouth in a straight line. But true enough, it had been only near two minutes when I felt my head begin to spin and my lungs ache for air.

As soon as I breathed thought, I collapsed, unable to move. I watched as he unlocked the cage, picking me up and laying me on the table, strapping me down.

"Hurry. They have to be relatively fresh to surge together." The other scientist said as they hurried me down the white halls, the antiseptic smell seeming to get worse, if possible.

I tried to move, but I was still immobile, even though if the drug had worn off I doubt I'd be able to move because of the straps. They wheeled me into a large white room, and laid me on a metal table, quickly strapping me down again.

Out of the corner of my eye I could see the wall lined with a dark reflective glass, and I guessed that there were more scientists in there.

"Knock it out. We can't have its screams waking up all California." A voice over a speaker said, a dark amusement in his voice. I wanted to squirm as I saw one of the scientists approach me with a syringe, but I couldn't.

As he put the liquid in my arm, I thought I saw the other scientists bring out something white out of a connected room, but before I could see what it was, black dots began to swim in my vision, and soon, I was out.

When I woke I was in pain and very sore, the pain mainly seeming to be in my upper back. I was in a dark room, and because of my feline enhancements I could see, as without them it would probably seem pitch black.

I was lying on my stomach, and I quickly sat up, and leant against the wall. I quickly pushed off the wall, a searing pain flashing through my body. I brought a hand up to my back tentatively, and what I felt made me feel nauseated, and I quickly put my hand on my stomach. They'd grafted wings onto me.

A/N

Sorry it took a while, school just started and so I was writing on and off. Hope you liked this chapter :)


	3. Chapter 3

Nausea overrode my senses as I leaned down on all fours dry heaving, and I wondered if they'd just put them on me since Angel and Gazzy had escaped so they needed new 'Winged Specimen'.

After a few minutes, I sat up and crossed my legs, trying to feel if I had any nerves or muscles that would allow me to move them. Like any other limb, right when I tried to move them they did, and I swallowed, wondering if because of the wings the doctors would show a special interest in me.

I hesitantly extended the wings, and they obeyed. I looked at them for the first time, finding they were white with dark pink and light brown speckles, and from wing tip to wing tip, probably about fourteen to fifteen feet, as I knew I was nearly six feet tall and as the wings seemed to be a bit longer then twice my size.

I quickly drew them in, grimacing slightly at the pain that it induced. I felt around the wings, and sure enough, could feel the ragged and slightly raised skin.

A loud 'BOOM' and a ground-shaking explosion drew me out of my thoughts, and I quickly got to my feet, wondering if an earthquake had caused a part of the School to collapse.

I went to the door and peered through the cracks in the side, that were letting in a little of the white light from the halls, and was surprised at what I saw. The robots were marching down the hallway, towards where the explosion had been, and all the doctors were running the other way, a few clutching a bleeding arm or wounded limb.

What's going on? Was someone attacking the School?

My thoughts immediately turned to Angel, Gazzy and the girl who'd broke them out, wondering if they were possibly behind it. But three mutants, or two if the girl was actually normal, couldn't take on the School; they'd be caught and locked up.

Another explosion shook the wall, causing small flakes of the ceiling to fall down. What if the explosion made the walls collapse and thus kill me? Or make me get trapped? I hastily made the decision to attempt to break out, and I tried to kick the door down, but it only rattled in its hinges. I tried again, smiling grimly when I saw a bit of the frame crack.

It only took two better-placed kicks for the doorframe to break, and the door swung open. For a moment I was worried that there might still be robots outside the door, but my worries were quickly remedied when I saw the last of the robots turn the corner.

I wondered if I should be heroic and go help whoever was attacking the School, or just make it out while I still could. It only took a few moments for me to decide, and I took off running the opposite direction, my life more important then some peoples that I didn't even know. When I could see two double doors in sight, I heard a few screams coming from a hallway I'd just passed.

I was torn between leaving and go helping whoever it was, but I knew that if I left then I wouldn't forgive myself, so I quickly backtracked and went down the hall, quickly finding it was one of the hallways that held all the experiments.

I swallowed as I saw the rows upon rows of scared mutants, most clutching the bars to their cages, scared faces peering out. I went to the closest cage on my left, containing a white haired boy with blue tinted white skin and ice blue eyes, who seemed to be around my age.

"Are you getting us out?" He asked as I leaned down to started to try to wrench out the metal that was between us. I was surprised at how cold his breath was, but kept on trying to take out the metal.

"Yeah. Do you know where the codes or a key to this is?" I asked, grimacing.

"The door at the end of the hallway. The code to the door is '429576'." He said, and I quickly straightened out, thanking him quickly before I ran down the hall to the door. I entered the code into the keypad, and the lock clicked.

The room was probably ten by ten feet, and so it was easy to find a pad of paper, that held the identifications to each cage on it, as well as the codes.

'_Lowest row on left from when you walk in, begins at first cage and so on' _was scribbled on the first sheet at the top in black marker, and I quickly ran back to where the white haired boy was held.

"1173." I muttered as I turned the dials, satisfied when it opened, "Can you read?" I asked as he stepped out, and he nodded. I ripped off the first page and gave him it to him, before going to the other side of the room and beginning at those, giving the same instructions to 'Get out and get as far away as you can' to each mutant that I let out.

I finished quickly, and two girls and three boys stayed with me, insisting that if I needed help to fight off any of the 'Fly boys', which they called the robots, that they would help me.

"We need to get out!" The white haired boy yelled from across the rooms as another explosion shook the walls, a loud crack making its way up the walls.

"You think?" One of the mutants said, and the white haired boy quickly unlocked the last, and we took off down the long hall, back towards the longer hall I'd originally been in.

"Just down this way, I think." I said, pointing to the left. The white haired boy nodded, and we began to run down that way, about ten of the other mutants following us.

Explosions continued to shake the building, seeming to get closer every time. We made it out the doors, and I was relieved to see it indeed led to the outside of the School. The fenced outside of the school.

A few mutants were scaling the wall easily, but the rest were running up and down the fence, trying to find a way out. I looked at where the explosions were coming from, and I could make out two winged boys flying above the school, a pouch of what I guessed to be bombs held by one of them.

I looked closer and held in a gasp as I saw the smaller of the two was Gazzy.

I turned my eyes away from the two as I turned to the huge gates, wondering how they were opened. I saw one of the two guard towers at the top of the gates, fifty feet above the ground, and I saw two options in my mind.

One, climb up the fence and find some way to avoid the barbed wire and get to the guard tower that way. Two, try out my new wings.

All I had to do was unfurl my wings to decide to climb the fence, as my back still felt like a rabid monkey had sawed off all the skin on my back and used super glue to put on my deadweights, aka my wings, using absolutely no pain relievers.

I was about to begin the climb when a scream came from behind me. I looked to see one of the mutant's fall, blood streaming down her plastic hospital gown from a bullet wound in her chest.

I looked to see that seemingly the whole army of 'Flyboys' that had been marching towards the first explosion sight were streaming out of the doors, beginning to round us up into a nice circle, the arms, which oh-so conveniently doubled as guns, pointed at us.

Well, this was going to be fun.

A/N

I usually would wait a while until starting the next chapter, but I already had this whole chapter planned out so I just kept on writing and posted it.

For those that were already reading this before, I apologize if you thought this would be an IggyxOc pairing, but as I wrote I can't see it happening, so I changed it. I'll try to make Iggy a prominent character, but not romantically involved with Lynx, maybe someone else though. Sorry.

I hope you all like this chapter, I'll definitely try and update within the next week


	4. Chapter 4

There are two things that you should never do in a fight, that I have unfortunate habits of doing. One would be to underestimate whomever your fighting, and two would be to be too cocky, despite all the times I reprimand myself for it.

So when I found myself on my butt with a loose jaw, I knew that I'd done both of them. Before the robot could place another _lucky_ hit, I sprang to my feet and stumbled backwards into the fence, using the spring of the fence to push me forward, and using the momentum to fuel my punch into the robot's upper neck, causing for it to snap, only a few wires still holding it's head to it's body.

I ripped off its head and chucked it at the other robots, managing to hit another, before beginning to fight the main group of the robots again. But not even a bunch of super strong, mutated kids can take on an army of robots. Seeing that we were definitely on the losing side, I waited until I got an opening before getting a running start at the fence, leaping a few feet before I would had collided with it.

I scaled the rest of the fence easily, grimacing when I remembered the barbed wire problem. I paused when I reached it, looking for a loose spot, but there was none. I moved to the right a few feet so the guard tower was right above me, calculating the odds of if I jumped, whether or not I'd be able to clutch onto the bottom of it.

Deciding that even if I couldn't grab it, I was likely to be able to land on my feet if I did fall because of the lynx blood in me, I leaned down, readying myself to jump. I knew my stomach would probably be a bloody mess because of the wire, along with any part of my body that touched the wire, so when I jumped, I tried to fling myself out a little, along with up.

A managed to get a grip on the bottom of the tower, scowling as my stomach screamed at me, blood already running down the plastic hospital gown.

I pulled myself up, and staggered into the small tower.

"Buttons, buttons, buttons." I muttered, looking through them, small black print above each one, "Intercom, alarm, backup, break out… ah! Gate open/close!" I pressed down on the white button, before looking for a way to get back down as the gate began to slowly open outward.

Jump? Or… never mind. Jumping it is. I used the small inch to tip toe to the other side, so if I jumped I'd fall to outside the School. Just as I was about to jump, I was wrenched up, and I was about to pull myself from their grasp when I was it was one of the flying kids, the with sandy blond hair.

"Its gonna be alright." He said, not looking at me. I raised an eyebrow, before realizing what he meant by that.

"I'm part cat. I would have landed on my feet, not go splat." I said, and he glanced down at me, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh, well… the rest of the Flock are taking care of the Flyboys, so I'll treat you. By the way, I'm Dylan." He said as we landed.

"Lynx." I said, realizing they must have been planning the attack, since where he landed was just behind a large boulder, out of sight from the School cameras and guards, plus backpacks and food wrappers were tossed around.

I looked back at the School, and saw that the others were already out. The other winged kids were flying back, the School's courtyard littered with the robots. For a few moments it was awkward, being there alone with Dylan, but then the other four winged kids landed.

"Hey, where's Fang?" Dylan asked, and I arched an eyebrow. Did they have another one named Fang? What, was he part snake or something?

"He wanted to get the files on us." The girl who'd gotten Angel and Gazzy out said, before turning to me, "Maximum Ride, and this is my flock." She said, introducing me to the other two, Nudge and Iggy.

"Lynx." I said, smiling slightly as I let the idea of freedom wash over me. She didn't smile back though, instead looking back to the School with a frown on her face. I looked to the School, but there wasn't much besides the smoke, rubble, useless robots and frantic scientists.

"I'm sure he's fine, Max." Angel said, looking at Max with a sweet smile. Weird, but sorta cool. She looked at me with a big smile, and I just rolled my eyes with a smile. Very weird.

Another loud explosion from the School's direction sounded, and we looked to see a black object flying out of there. Max smiled slightly, so I'm guessing this was Fang.

It took him about a minute to get to us, and Max looked like she wanted to hug him when he did.

"Your Fang, then? Creative name." I said, holding my hand out to shake. He didn't, and I put it back at my side, "Lynx." I said, and he nodded, handing manila folders to Max.

"Lynx, can you use those wings?" Max asked, and I shrugged.

"I just got them." I said, and surprise was evident on nearly all their faces, except for Fang. I practiced stretching them out, frowning at how _easy_ it was, as if I was born with it. If anything, it was disconcerting.

"Well, lets eat. We can look over these folders, and then tomorrow we're leaving for moms." She said. The others agreed, and Iggy grabbed his backpack and began to take food out of it.

"Hey, Lynx, Dylan says something about you!" Angel said, looking at Dylan, who was looking at me, as if studying me, "You gonna tell her what it says?" Angel asked with a big grin.

"Er…. I think… we're siblings." Dylan said.

A/N

Okay, I feel really bad about posting two weeks late, but I have a good reason! The laptop I use to post would pull up the Internet, so I've had this written since last Saturday.

Honestly, I don't have much interest in continuing this story currently, so it might take me longer to post chapters. I'm considering putting it on hiatus, since this story is kind of bland, but as long as there's someone reading this, then I'll do my best to get my interest in Maximum Ride back to the level it was at when I started the story.

R/R


	5. Authors Note

First of all, I'm really sorry if you came to this and thought it would be another chapter. I hate it when that happens to me, so I know how you feel. I'm not interested to keep on writing, and when I force myself to write to makes the chapters dull and uninteresting. I'm really sorry, but this story is going on a hiatus, and I'm not sure yet if its going to be temporary or permanent. Once again, I apologize if you thought this was going to be another chapter.


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